Post on 06-Aug-2015
GRAMMAR ERRORS
What You Can Learn from These
4 Lyric Mistakes
in Your
FAVORITE SONGS
INTRODUCTION“Music is the universal language of mankind,”
according to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But does
the same logic apply to lyrics? What about lyrics
riddled with grammatical errors?
Some people have a hard time listening to
grammatical errors in songs. These people believe
that rules are rules and that artists should somehow
figure out a way to make tricky lines work without
using double negatives or bending the rules of verb
moods. Well, to those people, I say, “Phooey!” That’s
right. I just used a slang word! You know why?
Because I’m speaking in a casual (rather than formal)
tone—the main concern is that I adequately convey
my meaning.
INTRODUCTION
When it comes to language, there is a time
and a place for everything. When you’re
writing a casual blog post, you don’t need to
be as strict with your language usage as you
do when you’re writing a formal paper. When
you’re speaking, you don’t need to follow the
rules the same way that you do when you’re
writing, and when you’re singing a song, you
can toss caution to the wind and make your
own rules,
as long as the result sounds good.
INTRODUCTIONAfter all, what would you rather belt out
passionately: “Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone,”
or the much more laborious, “There is no sunshine
when she’s gone”? You could even make the
sentence longer: “There is not any sunshine while
she is away.” Is that what you want? To make
classic songs unsingable? I don’t think so.
Still, since you’re reading this, I have to assume
that you’ve come here to learn about grammatical
rules. So let’s take a look at some examples of
grammatical errors in song lyrics and see what
lessons we can learn from them.
#1. OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE PRONOUNS
The Culprit:
The Songs:
Lady Gaga
Bad Romance
You and I&
In her megahit “Bad Romance,” Gaga sings: “I want your love, and/
I want your revenge/You and me could write a bad romance.” As
I’m sure your grandmother has pointed out to you hundreds of
times, this should be “You and I.” Ironically, Gaga makes the
opposite error in her other single, which is actually titled “You and I”:
“Somethin’, somethin’ about my cool Nebraska guy/Yeah something
about, baby, you and I.”
Gaga has misused her pronouns in both of these songs. The pronoun
I is used when the I in question is the subject of the sentence, while
the pronoun me is used when the me that is referred to is the object
of the sentence.
OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE PRONOUNS
The easiest way to remember when to use I versus when to use me
is to remove the other noun or pronoun from the sentence. So, in
the case of “Bad Romance,” we would test this by saying, “I want
your revenge/Me could write a bad romance.” When the lyric is
written like this, it becomes clear that the correct pronoun here is I,
because I is the subject of the sentence in question. Conversely, for
“You and I,” we can test the lyric by saying, “Somethin’ about, baby,
I.” You would never say “something about I.” This should be
“something about me,” because me is the object of the sentence.
The lyric should thus be “something about, baby, you and me.”
OBJECTIVE VS. SUBJECTIVE PRONOUNS
WHY WE FORGIVE GAGA
First, we can forgive Gaga because Mother Monster is not the first songwriter to
make this mistake. Other artists with songs incorrectly named “You and I” include
Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, John Legend, and many more. For most of these
songs, I has been chosen over me for the sake of rhyming.
This is also a common error that people make in everyday speech, probably
because somewhere down the grammar line, someone started the rumor that it’s
never correct to say “you and me.” As for the “Bad Romance” error, we’re going to
give Gaga some credit and say she purposefully used bad grammar in her lyric
about a bad romance. Plus, you know, this line had to fit in with the rest of the
song’s lyrics: “Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah/Roma-ro-ma-ma/Ga-ga-oo-la-lah.” Much words.
Very lyric.
#2. MOODY VERBS
The Culprit:
The Song:
Elvis Presley
Hound Dog
“When they said you was high class/well, that was just a lie...”
And when they said Elvis was a grammar nerd, well, that was
clearly just a lie as well. The problem with this lyric is the first use
of the word was. The word were should be used here instead, but
why? Because this sentence calls for the subjunctive mood of the
verb to be. The subjunctive mood is used when referring to
something that is not true or something that hasn’t
happened/isn’t going to happen (like a wish, a desire, or a
possible future event). In this case, the claims that the “hound
dog” was high class were untrue: hence, the need for the
subjunctive were.
MOODY VERBS
WHY WE FORGIVE ELVIS
Have you ever watched a late-1950s video
of Elvis Presley performing “Hound Dog”?
Have you seen this man dance? Have you
seen the way his legs move as if
independent of his body? I’m sure you
haven’t, because if you had, you wouldn’t
be concerned with such trifles as incorrect
verb moods in his lyrics. Come on now,
people—priorities!
#3. DOUBLE NEGATIVES
The Culprit:
The Song:
The Rolling Stones
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
What’s wrong with saying “
I can’t get no satisfaction”? Nothing, as long as
your name is Mick Jagger and you’re singing this
classic rock song. The grammatical problem with
this lyric is the use of the double negative. If the
Stones are not getting “no satisfaction,” does this
mean they are indeed getting some satisfaction?
This unclear meaning is the reason why double
negatives are generally not acceptable in written
language, though the intended meaning of these
statements is usually clear enough in a colloquial
spoken context.
DOUBLE NEGATIVES
WHY WE FORGIVE THE STONES
We forgive The Stones because saying “I
can’t get any satisfaction” just doesn’t
have the same punch to it, and because
this is widely considered to be one of the
greatest songs of all time. Besides, what
fun would rock stars be if they followed all
the rules?
#4. “LAY” VS. “LIE”
The Culprit:
The Song:
Bob Dylan
Lay Lady Lay
In this oft-covered classic, Dylan entreats his lady not to leave. “Lay,
lady, lay/Lay across my big brass bed,” he croons over and over. The
problem here? Dylan is repeatedly using the wrong word. Technically
speaking, the lyrics here should be “Lie, lady, lie/Lie across my big
brass bed.” Why is this?
“LAY” VS. “LIE”
The word lay should only be used when a direct object is involved. An easier way to think of
this is to remember that you have to be talking about the act of laying something, usually as
in laying something down. If Dylan were laying his lady down, or if he were asking her to lay
herself down, his lyrics would be correct. On a side note, Bon Jovi clearly knew what’s up here,
as evidenced by the lyrics of their song “Bed of Roses”: “I wanna lay you down on a bed of
roses.” So, Jon Bon Jovi can lay his lady down on a bed of roses, someone can lay their
burdens down, or you can lay something on me. But when I’m sleepy, I have to lie down.
WHY WE FORGIVE BOB
For one thing, this is a very common error in spoken language. It’s one of
those mistakes that doesn't really change the meaning of what a person is
trying to say, so it’s generally an acceptable error to make when speaking.
The problem Dylan may have been facing here is that the proper word choice,
lie, has more than one meaning. To lie means to recline or rest, yes, but it
also means saying something that’s not true. Dylan probably didn’t want
people to think he was inviting a big fat liar to hang out in his big brass bed
with him, so he opted to use the wrong word because it actually gave the
song a clearer meaning.
FINAL THOUGHTSI’ve used some specific examples for the sake of this SlideShare, but in reality,
these same errors occur in songs all the time. You can choose to harp
incessantly on the artists who make these errors in their music, or you can pull
an Adele Dazeem and let it go. If you can’t listen to the magical ballad that is
“Let It Go” without criticizing the lyrics, I don’t think I can help you.
Want to learn more? Check out these great resources: